Mfundekelwa Mkhulisi

Mfundekelwa Mkhulisi

It's a familiar story. A gullible person falling prey to promises of wads of cash by slick tsotsis.

One such person is Sipho Nzimande from Duduza, Ekurhuleni, who is none the wiser after being swindled out of his hard-earned cash.

He was fleeced of R100000 in cash.

"I nearly fainted. I did not know what to do. After a while I realised that I had been scammed," said Nzimande, who is now jobless and broke.

To make it seem real and professional, the man and woman team of fraudsters advertised their services through pamphlets, calling themselves "herbalists".

Nzimande picked up one of the pamphlets on his way to work and fantasised about how his financial problems would be over once the herbalists had sorted him out.

"When I read it I thought all my problems would be over. It promised that my money would multiply, all I had to do was go and consult," he said.

So he took a detour and went to the herbalists.

"The woman told me I had luck but I would have to make sacrifices to appease my ancestors," he said.

Nzimande said Mama Seja told him to buy a sheep to be slaughtered to cleanse him of the bad luck.

She also instructed him to buy wine "because your ancestors are thirsty".

He waited a year without contacting the herbalist because he did not have money for the rituals.

"One day she called me and said she had a gift for me. When I got to her place, she showed me a stack of money in an envelope and asked me to take a R100 note and use it to prove that it was not fake. Indeed it was real money and I was convinced," he said.

He said Mama Seja also told him to resign to concentrate on his "business now that you will be rich".

"They convinced me that everything would be alright. I resigned."

Nzimande said they told him to hand over his pension money so they could "work on it" to multiply.

So convinced was Nzimande that he withdrew all his pension money.

"I was told that I needed to buy a steel trunk in which to keep the money. Mama Seja came with her husband to my house to deliver the money.

"It was in two sealed brown envelopes and they put it inside the trunk and locked it," said a distraught Nzimande.

He was not allowed to take a peep at the "cash" in envelopes, in case he disturbed the "multiplying process".

"They told me they would keep the keys of the trunk because I might be tempted to open it," he said.

"That was the last time I saw them," he said.

A few months later he broke the trunk and discovered two envelopes and a bag stuffed with papers.